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Topic: Mahely M21 Carabina... broken (Read 1965 times)

Hi, I found a Mahely M21 22LR semi auto in pieces whilst clearing out an old shed. Its all there apart from the front sight, but it has a broken reciever. Basically the threaded section has been sheared off so that it is impossible to screw the end cap back on again. I have the broken parts so maybe a repair is feasible..... but I would rather have replacement parts if possible. Its a bit of a long shot, but does anyone have a Mahely reciever that they could be persuaded to part with? These rifles I am guessing were bargain basement when 1st sold, so its not really going to be worth anything... just hate seeing something broken.

Hi there, have been cleaning out deceased estate of my Father's found also my old Mahely M21 in sad condition, missing alot but alot of what you are after is there, started out looking for all the bits to rebuild it, but before found the old thing found the top wood also in sad cond. and ceremonially burned it on the fire to say goodbye!, so there is now a wood stock, barrel and receiver with thread end complete and intact and a magazine and misc. bag of bits, she was a good old girl if not prone to breaking down as they all did, yours for a small fee plus freight, I guess you can exchange emails here, fletchmw@orcon.net.nz, or would buy yours if you consider the other way around... thank you.

So I have an old gun with a broken reciever and all other bits apart from the front sight and the top wood, and a 'new' gun with a good reciever and a front sight - but as described, all the rest is pretty much for 'spares'.

The barrel almost fell out of the new gun after pushing out the cross pin, but would it go into the old reciever... not without freezing it and heating up the reciever it wouldn't. And the front sight was similar. So a few ancient words were thrown around the garage... especially when I realised that on reassembly the barrel was a few degrees out of true, back to the vice and carefully twisted it round and all good - pin back in, all the internals fumbled back in and the action mated up to the stock and away we go.

Anyway, all reassembled now and test fired, which was a 10cm vertical string at 25 metres... but since the top wood (now re-made out of some scrap) was missing and the band was not locking the barrel down I guess I can forgive it that.

Now its over to my daughter and the wire wool to refinish it.... and then its scope time, or red dot, not sure which yet.

The Mahely Carabina is now back together again and ‘functioning’ although I have some issues with its definition of functioning… more on that later.

Basically I rebuilt the rifle using the parts from two rifles as the one I found in bits had a broken receiver. I had to swap barrels to do this which involved lots of time in the deep freeze for the barrel and some heat on the receiver and then a bit of gentle persuasion to get the two to come together. The top wood was missing so I had to make up a new piece, this was interesting as I have never seen one of these rifles complete before. I then sprayed the metal parts of the rifle in flat black VHT ceramic engine enamel and the wood with flat black VHT wrinkle. The wood did not come up as well as I would have liked but as this is going to be a knock around gun I guess it does not matter too much.

After waiting for the paint to cure I reassembled the rifle and mounted a 4x scope that I had lying around, looks OK I think. My daughter wanted me to paint it pink… which I can’t really deal with – I am mulling painting it with flat desert pink tiger stripes, or whatever… basically using cutty grass or maybe fern leaves as the stencil and dusting it lightly with the colour.

Now the range report, I paced out 25 metres and stapled a printed target to a tree, the squares are about 1 inch so I am getting off-hand groups that are acceptable.

I did run into some feeding/cycling problems that I think are due to a lack of cleanliness as to be honest I rushed the rebuild and it could have been a bit better (the parts had surface rust when I found the rifle). I will take it apart again and give it a thorough clean and then rebuild it with care, hopefully this will clear up the feed/cycling issues. Basically the rifle would maybe cycle OK for 3-4 rounds and then not throw the hammer back far enough to engage the sear, which then meant that the round could not be fired without manually cycling the action. One other issue I had was that it would occasionally stove pipe, not sure what causes that.

Any way, a few evenings were used up playing in the shed, so whatever the outcome it was better than vegging out in front of the telly.

What ammo are you using? sub-sonic or standard ammo? Sounds like the bolt isn't being blown back far enough (or with enough force).

If you are using subsonic ammo, try std ammo (supersonic). Also could try freeing up the bolt a little. Are there any noticebale wear points on the bolt where it is rubbing in the receiver. A bit of oil might help.

What ammo are you using? sub-sonic or standard ammo? Sounds like the bolt isn't being blown back far enough (or with enough force).

If you are using subsonic ammo, try std ammo (supersonic). Also could try freeing up the bolt a little. Are there any noticebale wear points on the bolt where it is rubbing in the receiver. A bit of oil might help.

That's as far as my knowledge goes I am afraid.

I tried Winchester subs and S&B ammunition, the failure to feed happened with both types... my guess is that I need to get my cleaning gear into action and give the moving parts a dam good scrub and polish.... cheers for your comments JimmyJ

FH641: 3 and a half weeks without interweb...... finally back in the land of the living...February 11, 2015, 05:18:10 PM

aston_driver: looking forward to Digit's pics from shotshow 2015. Been watching his FB posts, but what about rimfires. Digit - get some gossip on that new 17HMR semi from SavageJanuary 22, 2015, 09:59:49 AM